1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method and system for receiving and handling orders for commodities and delivering the ordered commodities.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, there are various needs for purchase methods, such as a one stop order, short delivery term purchase, etc. In order to meet such needs, in the field of office supply business, various companies including OA (Office Automation) supply companies and stationery companies, or domestic and foreign capital companies, compete with one another. Each of those various companies has so many kinds of commodities to be provided to users by what is so-called one stop order, so as to provide the users with the commodities of its own commodities and other companies' commodities. As a result of this, the whole sales of those companies tend to increase, and it is estimated that the market of the office supply goods in Japan will grow to $12 billion. There are various methods of receiving orders also. In addition to the facsimile or telephone ordering, there is the Internet ordering which is quite convenient. Typical example of such Internet ordering is “one-click order”. In such circumstances where the above-mentioned various companies compete with one another in the field of mail-order business and where there are various methods of ordering for commodities, the customer tends to choose the office-supplier.
The mail-order business using the Internet technology is rapidly spread, along with the wide use of the Internet. Usually, in the mail-order business using the Internet, those consumers who would like to purchase commodities accesses commodities information served on a Web page on the Internet and finds the desired commodities from the commodities information.
Under the present situation of the mail-order business of stationary goods, each of those companies serves as a purchase agent (distribution business) for the consumers, and deals with personal business small, medium and large companies and the like. According to their sales method, there is prepared a catalog showing a plurality of commodities in association with their regular prices, and the actual prices of the commodities are determined upon determination between each customer and an SA (Service Assistant). Additionally, there is also another method wherein each of the companies waits for orders from the customers. Further, the catalog may show in advance “off prices” that are prices discounted from the regular prices, and each of the companies then waits for orders from the customers. In such conditions, orders received through the Internet comes to 15% to 30% of the total sales.
In the actual sales, each of the above-described companies sets a sales condition that it is necessary that the total price of each order be $100 or more, in order to avoid a decrease in the benefit rate. In addition to the stationary goods including the toner, paper, OA supplies for computers, office electronics products and the like, daily necessities are also sold through the Internet.
In consideration of the present circumstances of OA supply dealers, the number of C/V to be provided decreases, while a number of cancellations of machines contracted increases. This can be applied especially to customers with a great deal of C/V. For example, in an OA stationary dealer, according the study of the usage context of paper for the year 1998, it is clear that more than 90% of paper for C/V 5K or higher, whose contract is being cancelled, is purchased from other companies. According to data representing the relationship between the number of machines whose contract is cancelled and the provided rate of the C/V, it is essential to sell desired paper in order to avoid the cancellation of the machines contracted. Therefore, to maintain contracts with customers while increasing the sufficiency level of the C/V, it is necessary to have alliance with a paper manufacturer.
Those requirements that consumers purchase commodities of a corresponding company in the above-described sales circumstances are: low prices for those large-scale companies; easy way to purchase commodities; delivery of a requested commodity the next day at latest; and the like. In addition to the above requirements, for those small-scale companies and personal customers, it is preferred that customers purchase commodities by “one stop order”. The customers of small-scale companies purchase any commodities by one stop, while customers of relatively large-scale companies purchase a plurality of commodites from different sellers. Demands from consumers are: appropriate attitude in a case where an ordering mistake is found; urgent delivery, keeping a rich assortment of commodities in each category, collection of used items at the time when delivering a new commodities/collection of rapping materials/additional service for delivering and putting the commodities onto a specified rack, etc. That is, there tends to be various customer needs, such as (1) various manufacturer supplies by “one stop order” (to aim for reducing the cost) and short delivery term, (2) reasonable price, (3) additional service, (4) easy way to order commodities (e.g. using a facsimile or through the Web (Internet), and (5) purchase and collection of used goods for the environmental sake.
Conventionally, manufacturers (vendors) sell commodities (product items) from their assigned distributors or from their own sales section, according to a mail-order selling method without the Internet technology. For example, if the user gives an order through a telephone call or facsimile in a particular order form, data representing the order contents is sent to a corresponding distributor or its own main business management system. Upon this, the distributor or the main business management system informs the user of the delivery date. The main business management system sends order-reception information to the terminal of the O/E system (Order Entry System), and the O/E system sends an order for a particular commodity (product item) toward a manufacture section of the manufacturer or vender. For the inquiries from the user about the price of the commodity, specification of the commodity (product), a request for returning back once-purchased commodity or a request for delivering the commodity in a short delivery term, the distributor or the sales section responds. Additionally, for those inquiries regarding the delivery date, delivery time, stock information, addition or cancellation of ordered commodity, confirmation as to whether facsimile data has been received, the manufacturer or the sales section responds.